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€$e fcan Cortlanfct Mansion 

was built in 1748 by Frederick van Cort- 
landt. 

Land purchased by the City of New- 
York for a public park, 1889. 

Placed in the custody of the Colonial 
Dames of the State of New York by the 
Board of Park Commissioners, for a term 
of twenty-five years pursuant to an Act of 
the Legislature in 1896. 

Opened as a Public Museum by the 
Society of Colonial Dames of the State 
of New York, on May 27th, 1897, the 
250th anniversary of the landing of Gov- 
ernor Petrus Stuyvesant on the Island 
of Manhattan. 



The Museum will be open to the public free of 
charge on every day of the week except on Saturday, 
when an admission fee of twenty-five cents will be 
charged to aid in defraying the expenses of main- 
tenance. 




The van Cortlandt Mansion. 



I'he Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New Tork, in- 
corporated 1893, w ^ a P re f eni tnemberjbip of three hundred 
and fifty, commends itfelf to the public as a society formed for 
hiftoric refearch and conducting its affairs purely on hiftorical 
lines. 

Its brief life already shows a record for philanthropic deeds 
which Jlwuld be the raison d'etre of all patriotic organizations. 
Five hundred dollars, the proceeds of a courfe of lectures on Colo- 
nial Htftory, have been diftributed among the poor of New York ; 
prizes of gold pieces and medals have been eftablifhedin the Normal 
College for efjays on Colonial Hiftory ; this latter work having 
been inaugurated by Mrs. Lydig M. Hoyt, zvhofe recent death has 
been an incalculable lofs to the Society • the hiftoric places in the 
Mohawk Valley are being marked in an appropriate manner ; 
and a calendar of the wills on Me in the offices of the Secretary of 
State, the Court of Appeals and the County Clerk, has been tran- 
fcribed and publifhed by the Society. 

With a dejtre to ?nake itfelf a power for good in the commu- 
nity, the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New Tork takes 
up its latest work, the prefervation of this Manfion as a public 
mufeum, and under the wife leaderjhip of its honored Prefident, to 
whom the organization is largely indebted for its profperity, the 
Society will feek to make the Mufeum an object leffon of Colonial 
and Revolutionary times. 

M. L. D. F. 



The author has drawn from the Hiftories of Weft chef ter County, by Bolton 
and Scharf, and papers by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, Ben/on J. LoJJing, 
John Auftin Stevens, Thomas H. Edfall, and many other authorities. 
Thanks are alfo due to Mr. Kelby of the New Tork Hiftorical Society, Au- 
guftus van Cortlandt, and "John Bradley James, Jr.; alfo to Mr. Edfall, for 
his courteous per mifjion to reproduce his Hiftorical Map of King's Bridge. 



IA 



€I)e tan Cottlan&t jttangion 
in ban Cortlanat $arfe. 




HE History of the van Cortlandt Mansion carries 
us back to the historian of the New Netherlands, 
KH Adriaen van der Donck, who enjoyed the distinc- 
tion of being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony in the 
New World. 

van der Donck was a graduate of the University of 
Leyden, and an advocate in the Supreme Court of Hol- 
land. Arriving at Nieuw Amsterdam in a bark belong- 
ing to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, in the autumn of 1642, he 
immediately entered upon the duties of the important 
office of sheriff of the Colonie Rensselaerivyck} 

His Description of the Nieuw Netherland was published in 
Holland in 1656, the 

Book which as a leading star 
Directs toward the Land where many people are, 
Where lowland Love and Law all may fully share. 2 

He was allowed to give advice, but was forbidden to 
plead on the novel ground that, " as there was no other 
lawyer in the colony, there would be no one to oppose 
him." He was one of the committee who represented 
to the States General the remonstrance of the people 
against the oppression of the servants of the West India 
Company. This remonstrance resulted in granting to 
the people certain rights, which may be said to be the 
first charter of Nieuw Amsterdam. 3 

It was owing to van der Donck's exertions that the 
first church at Fort Orange (Albany) was built, and the 
services of Dominie Megapolensis secured. 

1 N. Y. Hist. Coll. New Series, Vol. I, p. 128. 

2 Evert Nieuwhof, 1655. 
3 Mag. of Amer. Hist., Vol. XXVII, p. 402. 

vii 



As a reward for negotiating an important Indian treaty 
at Fort Orange, van der Donck had been granted by 
Director Kieft a large plantation on the Nepperhan River, 
but the indispensable requisite of a Dutch farm, a salt 
meadow, was lacking here. In search of something to 
remind him of his farm in Holland, he found about a 
mile above the wading-place (King's Bridge) " a flat with 
some convenient meadows about it," which he secured, in 
1646, by purchase from the Indians Tackarew, Claes, and 
seven others, and a grant from Director William Kieft. 1 

On the flat just behind the present grove of locusts, 
north of the old mill, he built his Bouwene, or farm-house, 
with his planting field on the plain, lying between Broad- 
way and the present lake, and extending to the southerly 
end of Vault Hill. In 1649, ne went to Holland as the 
representative of the Commonalty of Nieuw Amsterdam, 
leaving his house only partly finished. During his ab- 
sence his grant of land was made a Manor, of which he 
was to be Patroon, and which he called Colen Donck? In 
accordance with the privileges granted to the patroons, he 
sent out colonists and supplies for his Manor, and, in 1652, 
accompanied by his wife, mother, a brother and sister and 
a suitable retinue, was about to set sail for Nieuw Amster- 
dam, when the West India Company notified him that 
his services were still needed in Holland. Word was 
brought him that various portions of his land were occu- 
pied by " land-greedy persons." In despair he appealed 
to the West India Company, begging them to protect his 
"flat and salt meadows," and so importunate was he that, 
in the summer of 1653, ^ e was a ^ owe d to return to his 
Manor. He reached Nieuw Netherland in the autumn, 
and at once went to his Bouwerie, which he did not long 
enjoy, as he died in 1654. 

In 1655, during the Indian massacre, when all the out- 
lying inhabitants of the Nieuw Netherland fled to Nieuw 
Amsterdam for protection, his Bouwerie was deserted and 

1 This tract had been granted to the Dutch West India Company, August 3d, 1639. 
Albany Rec. C C, 62. 

2 Donck's Colony. 

viii 



destroyed. His widow, the daughter of Reverend Francis 
Doughty, Patentee of Mespath, Long Island, became in 
course of time the wife of Hugh O'Neale, of Patuxet, 
Maryland, and van der Donck's tract * became known as 
"O'Neale's Patent," by a new grant in 1666, made to 
O'Neale and his wife. Owing to their residence being at 
a distance, they assigned the patent to Elias Doughty, a 
brother-in-law of O'Neale. In 1668, William Betts, an 
Englishman, by trade a turner, and his son-in-law George 
Tippett, purchased from Doughty two thousand acres, 
Tippett receiving a special deed of gift from Doughty, 
including the site of van der Donck's Bouwerie. Tippett 
was rather a curious character. He gave his name to the 
Governor as one " ready to serve his Majesty " on all oc- 
casions, yet his neighbors' swine often disappeared, only to 
reappear with Tippett's ear-mark, which was that the ears 
were cut so close that any other marks would be cut off. 
As a necessary consequence, he was often seen in court. 
The tract covering the site of the van Cortlandt Mansion 
was conveyed by Doughty to Thomas Delavall, Frederick 
Philipse and Thomas Lewis, Philipse afterward acquiring 
the interests of Delavall and Lewis. During the last half 
of the seventeenth century, it is supposed that a group of 
houses, inhabited by all the population of the Yonkers 
outside of Fordham and Paparinamin, 2 together with a 
good and strong block-house, stood in the neighborhood 
of the van Cortlandt Mansion. Frederick Philipse, a car- 
penter by trade, came to Nieuw Amsterdam in Stuyvesant's 
time, and for five years worked on the forts at Nieuw 
Amsterdam and Esopus. He was fortunate enough to 
woo and wed Margaret Hardenbrook, the buxom widow 
of Pieter Rudolphus de Vries, a prosperous trader. Mrs. 
Philipse was a thrifty Dutch lady, and inclined, even after 
marriage, to manage her own affairs. She went to and 
from Holland as supercargo of her own vessels, in one of 
them bringing over, in 1679, the Labadists. With the 

1 This fief was called by the colonists de Jonkheer's Landt, Jonkheer being a term in 
Holland applied to the sons of noblemen. The English corrupted it into Yonkers. 

2 An island on the southern shore of King's Bridge. 

IB ix 



aid of such a wife, and by his own exertions, Philipse soon 
became the richest man in the Colony. His wife Marga- 
ret died in 1692, leaving a daughter, Eva, a child by her 
first husband; and Philipse married the widow of John 
Dervall, the daughter of Olof Stevense van Cortlandt. 
Jacobus van Cortlandt, the brother of Mrs. Philipse, mar- 
ried Eva Philipse, as she was styled by her stepfather. 

Jacobus van Cortlandt was an eminent New York 
merchant, the second son of the Right Honorable Olof 
Stevense van Cortlandt, who came out to the country in the 
military service of the West India Company. His house 
was built a little north of the Mill. Jacobus van Cort- 
landt bought the fifty acres known as George's Point, 1 in 
1699, fr° m Philipse, his father-in-law, adding to it several 
hundred acres while he lived. He made a mill-pond by 
damming up Tippett's Brook, and set up a grist and 
saw mill. He devised to his only son Frederick van 
Cortlandt his " farm situate, lying and being in a place 
commonly called and known by the name of Little or 
Lower Vonckers." Frederick van Cortlandt married a 
daughter of the good old Huguenot Augustus Jay, by his 
wife Anna Maria Bayard. His son and heir, Colonel 
James van Cortlandt, nobly used his influence, while 
residing in the Mansion, in ameliorating the condition 
of his suffering countrymen. It not infrequently hap- 
pened that a poor neighbor was robbed of everything he 
possessed. Then Colonel van Cortlandt would assume his 
red watch-coat and, mounting his horse, ride down to the 
city to intercede on his behalf. He seldom applied in 
vain, so universal was the respect for his character. 

The van Cortlandt Mansion is built of rubble stone, 
with brick trimmings about the windows. It is unpre- 
tentious in appearance, yet possessing a stateliness all its 
own, which grows upon the visitor. It was erected, in 
1748, by Frederick van Cortlandt — a stone on the south- 
east corner bears the date — and preserves within and 
without many of the peculiarities of the last century. 

1 This purchase was increased and kept intact in the family, until acquired by the city 
of New York for the present van Cortlandt Park. 



The will of Frederick van Cortlandt, dated the second 
of October, 1749, recites: "Whereas I am now about 
finishing a large stone dwelling-house on the plantation 
in which I now live." 

Built on a plateau on the eastern slope of the river 
chain of hills, it commands an extensive interior view. 
The long and smiling vale of Yonkers stretches beneath 
it, and to the southward the placid landscape ends in 
the Fordham Heights. 

The Albany Post Road goes up on one side of the val- 
ley, and the Mosholu Tavern there was at one time the 
stopping-place for all travelers. Fenimore Cooper has im- 
mortalized this section of the country in his famous tale of 
Revolutionary times, " The Spy," and, in fact, the whole 
region teems with memories and landmarks of by-gone 
times. 

The style of architecture of the house is essentially 
Dutch. The old Dutch builders were thorough masters 
of their trade, and put up a structure which is as strong 
to-day, as when New York was a colony. All the windows 
on the front are surmounted by curious corbels with faces 
grave or gay, satyrs or humans, but each different from the 
other. Felix Oldboy innocently asked if they were portraits 
of the van Cortlandts, and the owner replied, "Yes, and 
that the particularly solemn one was taken after he had 
spent a night with the boys." The window-sills are wide 
and solidly built into the thick stone walls, as was the 
fashion of the time, and vary somewhat in form in the 
second story. The side-hall and the dining-room, with 
the rooms above, belong to an addition built a year or 
two later than the main house, and the " lean-to " is an 
addition of this century. 

The history of the house is full of romance, and it 
stands to-day one of the most interesting relics of the 
Colonial period. The interior is not less quaint and in- 
dividual. An air of the olden times, which would have 
charmed the heart of Hawthorne, still pervades the whole 
building, and the Society of Colonial Dames have en- 
deavored, so far as was possible, to restore it to its original 



XI 



condition. Everything has been done to re-invest the 
house with some semblance of its "dignified past and the 
historic memories connected with it. 



in the front and side windows presents a most interesting 
scientific problem. 

It has all the appearance of ground glass, though it 
was perfectly transparent when first placed there. Close 
examination reveals a process of disintegration, spiculse 
of glass falling off when scraped with the finger-nail. 
Scientists fail to account for it, though theories are many 
and varied. Some years ago the rows of stately box, re- 
nowned for height and antiquity, which stood in the old 
garden, were cut down, and the glass inserted since shows 
no decay. It has been presumed that the box and expo- 
sure to the salt water of Mosholu Creek are in some way 
responsible for the phenomenon. The heads of the 
Tiffany Glass Works — and no more reliable authority 
can exist — are so far baffled as to a solution. 

" The glass is very poor," they write. " If it were not 
decayed on both sides, it would be easy to solve the 
reasons for its conditions. There must be some particular 
local influence. The decay on the outside is of a form 
well known, and can be accounted for ; but that on the 
inside is entirely unknown to us." A fuller report is 
promised later. 



rises from the front hall with many windings to the 
second and third stories. At the first landing, directly op- 
posite the front door, is a large window filled with small 



old-fashioned panes of glass. The antlers in the front 
hall were taken from a deer shot on the place. Deer are 
said to have frequented the vicinity as late as 1782. 



The southeast room, known as the drawing-room, has a 
handsome mantel of carved wood, a fine specimen of Co- 
lonial handiwork. On the iron back of the fireplace, 
Adam, Eve, the serpent and tree of forbidden fruit are 
displayed. Across the east, or rear hall is 



This room has been somewhat modernized, although 
an old wine closet in the side of the chimney still remains. 
It has entertained historic guests. Here Generals Wash- 
ington and Rochambeau dined on July 23, 1781, 1 after 
having reconnoitered the woods on the northern part of 
Manhattan Island. Later William Henry, Duke of 
Clarence, afterward King William IV., dined here with 
Rear Admiral Robert Digby 2 of the British Navy, and so 
pleased were they with their entertainment, that on their 
return to New York they sent to their host, Augustus van 
Cortlandt, the huge teak-wood vultures that surmounted 
for many years the posts of the old gateway facing the 
stables. These vultures, of grotesque form and truly her- 
aldic design, have a history. They were part of the spoils 
taken from a Spanish privateer during the Revolutionary 

1 On July 23d, 1 78 1, General Washington and General Rochambeau dined with Au- 
gustus van Cortlandt and returned to their camp in the evening. Itinerary of General 
Washington, 1775-83, p. 229. " History of New York," Thomas Jones, Vol. I., p. 204. 

2 Robert Digby, "Rear Admiral of the Blue," was, in 1 781, appointed to the chief com- 
mand on the American Station, and had under his especial charge Prince William Henry, 
afterward William IV. " Balfe's Naval Biography," Vol. I, p. 192. 



War, and were considered even then in the light of curi- 
osities. They have been given to the Colonial Dames by 
Mr. Augustus van Cortlandt, and may be seen in the front 
hall. 

Men prominent in the civil and military life of the day 
were frequent guests, and the walls have resounded with 
the laughter of the British and of American patriots. 

How the uncovering of the brilliant mahogany and the 
toast of " Absent Friends and Sweethearts " was the signal 
for a merry bout, when convivial song added to the charm 
of the occasion and " flinching " was not allowed. It is 
said a deserter, seeking to escape the "glass too much," 
broke from the festive hall, cleared the front steps at a 
bound, followed down the lane by the whole company in 
hot pursuit, and, to the cry of " view halloo," with one 
brave leap cleared the five-barred gate. 

Lobster salad was an especial dish at Cortlandt House 
for generations, and its peculiar excellence lay in the fact 
that the lobsters, caught in the Sound daily, were bled to 
death. A puncture was made in the neck and the lob- 
ster was then hung for several hours before being cooked. 
The van Cortlandt hams were far famed. The pork was 
raised and fattened on the place, and the immense hams 
were the main dish on state occasions. They were cured 
very salt, which tended to increase the thirst for the famous 
"van Cortlandt madeira" and the "White port." 



€lje Sltastyingtou i&oom. 

The southwest room is unchanged since the time when 
the Hessian Commandant of the Green Yagers * occupied 
it, and General Washington made it his headquarters just 
before his triumphal entry into New York on Evacuation 
Day, 1783. Around the fireplace are old-fashioned blue 

1 The Yagers, or Jagers, were a body of light infantry armed with rifles. The word is 
from the German to chase. 

xiv 



tiles that tell scriptural stories in the quaint way then pre- 
vailing, "when saint and sinner were alike a sight to 
behold." 1 

The deep window seats are suggestive of comfort, and 
the andirons, which have a history of their own, speak of 
huge logs, mulled cider, rosy-cheeked apples and hickory 
nuts. 

In olden times, it was a guest-chamber and later a li- 
brary. It will now be used as the Museum, where Colonial 
and Revolutionary relics will recall to mind the past, with 
its memories, sad and tender. It was in this room that 
the brave Captain Rowe expired in the arms of his bride- 
elect, and his ghost is said still to haunt it on the anniver- 
sary of his death. Captain Rowe, of the Pruschank Tagers, 
was in the habit of making a daily tour from King's 
Bridge round by Mile Square, 2 for the purpose of rec- 
onnoitering. He was on his last tour of duty, having 
resigned his commission for the purpose of marrying Eli- 
zabeth Fowler, of Harlem. As he was passing with a 
company of light dragoons, he was suddenly fired on by 
three Americans of the water guard of Captain Pray's 
company, and fell from his horse mortally wounded. 
Word was sent to St. John's Rectory, near at hand, for a 
conveyance to remove the wounded officer. The use of 
a horse and gig was secured, and the dying man was taken 
to the van Cortlandt House. In the meantime an express 
had been sent to Miss Fowler, who, accompanied by her 
mother, hastened to the side of her dying lover, who had 
just strength enough to greet her, and then fell back in 
her arms dead. 

The fireplace has been restored, and the room presents 
the same appearance as when Washington occupied it. 

On June 26, 1775, General Washington with his suite, 
attended by several New York military companies, and 
likewise by a troop of gentlemen of the Philadelphia 

1 Felix Oldboy's " A Tour Around New York," p. 339. 

2 "This land next northerly from Eastchester on the other side of Brunckses (Bronx) 
River." Fairfield Records. Tradition says it was given by Frederick Philipse as a dower 
portion when his daughter Annetje married Philip French. 



Light Horse, commanded by Captain Markoe, and a 
number of the inhabitants of New York, set out for the 
Provincial Camp at Cambridge, near Boston. The Gen- 
eral rested that night at King's Bridge at Cortlandt House, 
and the next morning proceeded on his journey. 1 



€>n tye ^>econt> floor 

are three large bed-rooms; the northeast room still hav- 
ing the old Dutch tiles around the fireplace, with their 
scriptural illustration. 



€Ije old mint^otmx, 

in the northeast part of the third story, still shows the 
ancient hand-hewn beams and wrought-iron nails. The old 
lock is also curious, as are the wooden pegs which hold the 
beams together. There are several curious locks in the 
house, particularly one on the door of the southeast cham- 
ber opening into the rear hall. An economizing of space 
in the landing in the rear hall also denotes Dutch thrift. 

All the beams in the mansion are hand-hewn, and the 
cedar and cypress laths, hand-made. The manner of join- 
ing the doors on the third story is also curious. 



C^e Mtttym, 

with its huge fireplace and brick oven, shows how well 
our ancestors provided for creature comforts. It is highly 
probable that this kitchen was built a year or two after the 
erection of the main house. 

1 "Itinerary of General Washington," p. 71. 
XVI 



Some years ago an ash-room back of the brick oven 
was removed, and several bottles of metheglin were un- 
earthed, so incrusted by the heat of the ashes that it was 
necessary to break the neck of the bottle in order to reach 
the honeyed beverage of our forefathers. 



€^e Cellar 

will be found most interesting. The hand-hewn oaken 
beams measure eleven by thirteen inches. The two loop- 
holes on the western side prove clearly that the builder 
made preparation for defense, and it is safe to say that 
originally the present windows were all loop-holes. It will 
be noticed, from the peculiar formation, that they were so 
formed that the musket would fire away from the stoops. 
It was a famous cellar. The regime was that usual in the 
good old days of madeira and port, when annual provision 
was made, by the old and half-old being refilled in the 
order of their succession. Later demijohns of the famous 
vintages, under the name of their importer, or the vessel 
which brought them, took the place of this primitive 
practice. Then the well-stored vaults held Blackburn, 
March and Benson, Page, Convent, White, and other well- 
known importations of madeira in profusion; and the 
" White port" held undisputed rank. Nor must the "Resur- 
rection madeira" be forgotten; so called because buried 
during the Revolution and dug up at its close. In the 
Museum will be seen a quaint wooden lock taken from an 
old door in the cellar. The walls are three feet in thickness. 



Clje d&ramti in tfrottt 

of the house was artificially terraced, and ornamented, after 
the Dutch manner of gardening, with large box-trees, and 

xvii 



here and there small sheets of water and diminutive foun- 
tains. The grounds were interspersed with ancient trees 
still standing. A splendid row of horse-chestnuts, reputed 
to be one hundred and seventy-five years old, flourish with 
a still youthful vigor, and overshadow with a grand arch 
of limbs and leaves where once stood the old gate-posts 
surmounted by the Spanish vultures. The road to the 
house has been slightly altered. In the olden days, flag- 
ging extended from the side entrance to the front, and the 
clattering over the stones announced the visitor long before 
he mounted the three or four steps to the house, and rested 
on the side benches, now restored, until the half-door swung 
open to admit him to the broad hall. 



Jying on the right of the front stoop, was dug up by 
William Ogden Giles on the site of the American Fort 
Independence, and has been loaned by him to the Colo- 
nial Dames. 

The twenty-one nine-pounders carried off from the Bat- 
tery by the Sons of Liberty, August 23, 1775, were hauled 
up to King's Bridge and left in charge of the Minute Men. 
On the night of January 17, 1776, these guns were loaded 
and stopped with stones and rubbish, and later had to be 
unspiked at the cost of 20s. each. They were afterward 
mounted in the works erected by the American troops on 
the hills about King's Bridge. 

In the beginning of the Revolutionary War, May 8, 
1775, Congress appointed a committee of five, including 
Col. James van Cortlandt, Gouveneur Morris and Gen. 
Richard Montgomery, to fortify the approaches to New 
York City. The principal fort built by order of this 
committee was Fort Independence, situated on Tetar Hill, 
then the property of General Montgomery, purchased by 
him in 1772. After the evacuation of Fort Washington, 

xviii 



Colonel Lasher, then in command of Fort Independence, 
was ordered to evacuate the Fort, burn the barracks and re- 
move the guns. On October 28, 1776, he carried out the 
order given him, but being unable to procure horses to 
move the cannon, he dug a trench, which afterward proved 
to be the western corner of the foundation of Wm. Ogden 
Giles's house. In 1853, wm l e building, Mr. Giles dug up 
fourteen of these guns. He gave twelve away to different 
organizations in the county and kept two, one of which 
he lends to the Museum at van Cortlandt Mansion. 1 

To the northeast of the Mansion rises Vault Hill, so 
called from the family sepulchre upon its summit. From 
this spot the view is most charming. The vault itself is a 
small square edifice surmounted with a pointed roof, the 
whole inclosed by a solid stone wall. 

The field which was cut in two by the tracks of the 
New York and Putnam Railroad was once a burial place 
of the Indians, and later served the same purpose for the 
few inhabitants of the region. 

To the northeast is an opening of the woods, where the 
dust of eighteen of the forty Stockbridge Indians, who 
fell beneath the British bullets, while fighting on the side 
of the Colonists, lie in one grave, still unmarked by a stone. 
All through this region the plow and spade of the builder 
or workingman turn up cannon-balls, rusty fragments 
of bayonets and other reminders of the bloody struggle 
which raged here for eight long years. 

When the parade-ground, just north of the Mansion, was 
leveled and graded, some curious Indian fireplaces and 
pottery were found, indicating an important ancient In- 
dian settlement, covering about fourteen acres. These dis- 
coveries, made John Bradley James, Jr., of Riverdale, have 
proved of great interest to the archaeologist. A good-sized 
brook formerly ran through the northerly end of the plain, 
turning off at a right angle to the east, at about its center. 
The brook has since been drained and covered. South- 
ward of the bend was the village site. The soil was rich, 

1 The history of the gun's services during the American Revolution will be found in 
detail in Scharf's "History of Westchester," Vol. L, chap. 19. 



the result of generations of cultivation, having been tilled 
since it was the planting-field of van der Donck. It was 
an ideal camping-place, combining beauty of location and 
the conveniences of a rude life. The adjoining woods 
abounded in game. The soil was loam, and easily tilled. 
A clear stream of water sufficed for domestic uses, and 
clay suitable for making pottery was found along its 
banks, while the Harlem River and Spuyten Duy vil Creek 
abounded in fish and shell-fish of all descriptions. The 
tribe was known as the Waquareskeeks or Keskeskicks, a 
sub-tribe of the great Mohican nation, immortalized by 
James Fenimore Cooper. The early settlers called them 
the Wider s Creek Indians. Keskeskick means "the birch- 
bark country," in allusion to the prevalence of birch-bark 
trees, still plentiful to-day. The skeletons of thirteen 
Indians were found here almost intact. The interesting 
collection made by Mr. James can be seen in the Museum 
of Natural History in New York. 



C^e Mill* 

At the southern extremity of the lake which bears the 
family name of the van Cortlandts, an ancient mill, which 
has ground corn for both friends and foes of American 
Independence, nestles among overhanging chestnuts and 
elms, and looks out upon a miniature cascade and rapids, 
which babble to the great trees on their banks the same 
song that they sang more than a century ago. Not much 
is known about the old mill. It first stood just below 
the locust grove northwest of the van Cortlandt Station, 
and was removed by Augustus van Cortlandt about 1823 
to its present site, he having built the dam at about that 
date. The original mill was a one-story building. When 
it was removed, another story was added to the grist-mill 
and the saw-mill was built. During the Revolution 
both sides used the mill, as the fortune of war placed it in 

XX 










At 



i ^ i 



The van Cortlakdt Mill. 



the hands of one or the other. Up to 1881, the grist- 
mill was turned by a large wooden wheel. It ground the 
corn of the neighboring formers until the summer of 1 889, 
when the City of New York came into possession. 

The mill-pond, now called van Cortlandt Lake, was 
made by Jacobus van Cortlandt, about 1700, by damming 
Tippett's Brook, a stream called by the Indians Mosholu, 
and subsequently known as Mill Creek, Yonkers River, 
and Tippett's Brook. This stream rises in Yonkers and 
flows southwesterly until it forms van Cortlandt Lake. 
Below the lake it is a tidal stream to its outlet into Spuy- 
ten Duyvil Creek. 

The van Cortlandt family were proprietors with their 
own skilled laborers, making them independent of their 
neighbors or the outer world ; upon their farm they raised 
their own flax and wove their own garments, had car- 
penters, blacksmiths, millwrights and masons, raised their 
own stock and constructed their own buildings, the ex- 
isting mansion being built from materials from their own 
grounds and by their skilled craftsmen. 

They were good patriots, these early van Cortlandts, 
and a stiff-backed race. 

During the early part of the Revolution, the mansion 
was garrisoned by a picket guard of Green Yagers, the 
officers having their headquarters there. During the Rev- 
olution, King's Bridge constituted the "barrier" of the 
British line when they occupied New York Island, while 
as far north as the Croton extended the neutral ground. 
Many a skirmish took place between the patriots and 
De Lancey's loyal Refugee Corps, the French and the 
Hessians, and here occurred the bitter struggle with the 
Stockbridge Indians, who had joined Washington, and 
the Queen's Rangers under Colonel Simcoe. The scene 
of the engagement lies northeast of the Mansion. An 
alarm having been given, and the approach of the Indians 
being momentarily expected, Colonel Simcoe threw out a 
picket and took post in a tree convenient for observation. 
At length, seeing a flanking party of the enemy approach- 
ing, the troops were ordered into ranks, and had hardly 



accomplished the movement when a " smart firing " was 
heard from the Indians, who were exchanging shots with 
Lieutenant-Colonel Emerich of the advance guard. 

The Queen's Rangers were moved rapidly to gain the 
heights, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton immediately 
pushed forward, with the hussars and light cavalry, but, in 
consequence of the fences in the way, was obliged to re- 
return farther upon the right. This being reported to 
Colonel Simcoe, he broke from the column of the Rangers 
with a grenadier company, leaving Major Ross to conduct 
the corps to the heights, and arrived without being per- 
ceived within ten yards of the Indians. These now gave 
a yell and fired upon the grenadiers, wounding Colonel 
Simcoe and four others. The enemy were, however, 
quickly driven from the fences when Lieutenant-Colonel 
Tarleton got among them, and he pursued them rapidly 
down van Cortlandt Ridge. 

Though this ambuscade failed in greater part, yet it was 
of importance. Nearly forty Indians were killed, and it 
was beyond question the most important action of the 
" Neutral Ground." Eighteen Indians were buried in the 
same pit in " Indian Field," by the " Indian Bridge," 
which still exists ; and it is said that the spirit of the sa- 
chem yet walks abroad upon the scene of conflict. 

In February, 1776, Colonel Augustus van Cortlandt, 
Clerk of New York City, reported to the Committee of 
Safety that, for their security, he had removed the public 
records to his family vault on Vault Hill. They were 
there until the following December, but it is probable that 
the British were soon afterward apprised of their place 
of concealment, and they were returned to the city. Five 
years later, Washington lighted bonfires on Vault Hill, 
deceiving the British encamped on the southern side of 
Spuyten Duyvil Creek, while the great body of his army 
was on the march to join Lafayette at Yorktown. 

During the Revolution, the house was occupied most 
of the time by some of the van Cortlandt family. Col. 
James van Cortlandt was a member of the provincial 
congress, and his brother Frederick a captain of the West- 



xxn 



chester levies. The old Mansion saw the retreat of a part 
of the American army on its way to White Plains, in 
1776. 

When, in January, 1777, General Heath made a move- 
ment against the British outposts at King's Bridge, the 
right division under General Lincoln, on the night of the 
17th, moved from Tarrytown by the old Albany Post Road 
to the heights above the Mansion, their camp being lo- 
cated in the woods back of the Mansion; and, on the 
18th, General Lincoln "surprised the guard above van 
Cortlandt's, capturing arms, equipage," etc. A skirmish 
occurred at Fort Independence four days later. British 
troops were called to order under the apple trees to hear 
the Church of England service and prayers offered for 
King George. Armand's gallant French cavalry have 
charged over its fields, and the Mansion was ransacked by 
the British in their search for the brave colonel, who was 
far advanced on his retreat to Croton. 

From its windows, during the grand reconnoissance, in 
1781, could be seen the smart cavalry fight at the old 
bridge near the mill. In November, 1783, Washington 
passed down the old Albany Post Road, alighted at the 
mansion and drank a glass of "Resurrection madeira" to 
the health of the ladies and the thirteen States, and, amid 
the acclamation of the people, rode victorious across King's 
Bridge, over which he had retreated seven years before. 



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